12 Injured in Hail of Gunfire at Baltimore Backyard Cookout

[proud2BlibKansan]

BALTIMORE — Detectives were searching Monday morning for a gunman who opened fire at a backyard cookout, wounding 12 people, police department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

None of the dozen victims suffered life-threatening injuries. The victims were hit in the legs, arms, shoulders and backs, and the wounded included a 2-year-old girl and a pregnant 23-year-old woman, police said.

Detectives were interviewing witnesses and working to develop a description of the gunman, who walked into the small backyard of a rowhouse on Ashland Avenue and opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon around 9 p.m., according to police.

The backyard shooting was the first of several occurring within a two-mile radius.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534913,00.html

[slackmaster]

1. The area where the events happened is a shithole

One of the most run-down places I have ever seen in the USA.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. And that makes it understandable?

Human beings live there, do they not?

[slackmaster]

3. There are good human beings and not-so-good human beings

Guns in the hands of good human beings are generally not a problem.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. And when those guns fall into the hands of those not-so-good human beings?

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. My school sits in the middle of their shooting range

So sorry but I disagree they are performing a valuable public service.

[slackmaster]

7. Your kids go to school in a Baltimore slum?

Why on Earth did you put them in such danger?

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. I teach in a school in the middle of gang territory

Baltimore isn't the only city that has crime and gang problems.

Nice slam on people who live in these neighborhoods, BTW. They are putting their kids in danger. Nice slam.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nitrogenica]

13. Someone has to teach the poorest among us.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

14. "Let the poor and depressed peasants shoot each other"!

Is this the argument you are making? Wow, just when I think I have heard the most ridiculous and inhuman thing on DU, someone comes a long and takes the prize. YOU WIN!!!

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[blindpig]

17. And economics have nothing to do with it?

Ya know, like decent jobs?

This kind of bullshit leaves the capitalists who have created this situation off scott free every time.

[slackmaster]

18. Decent jobs and eduction would go a long way toward solving the problem of poverty

45 years of throwing money at it hasn't helped much.

[blindpig]

23. throwing money?

The pittance provided for public assistance is a disgrace. Vietnam derailed the War on Poverty and funding has been declining ever since. A portion of the Pentagon budget would do the job but our leaders, of either party, have other priorities than the wellbeing of the people.

[michreject]

29. Some people don't want decent jobs

making 500 dollar a week. They want jobs making 500 dollars an hour.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

21. You dont tolerate crime in your neighborhood

Where do you live? I live in Chicago where the public school system is horrible, where there are far too few police on the streets, where there are very few alternatives for young people. Very few programs and places for these young people to go. Where there is a culture of poverty and crime. Most of these kids are from single parent homes, their parent usually works and isn't in the home, most of these kids look for love and support in other places more than likely in a gang.

They have poor role models or none at all.

So before you call these people "bad human beings", think a little bit and wonder why they end up "poor human beings". The problem of poverty and crime is a lot more complicated than you are stating. I wish it was as easy as you said. But seeing it every day as I do it isn't.

I have no idea where you live but my guess is a middle class suburb, but you can tell me where it is if I am wrong. I have lived in a middle class suburb before and so I would expect you to have the response you do. There is a world out there that is very different from your suburban existance it might suit you to acknowledge that and have a bit more sympathy for those people who are less fortunate.

[eeyore]

24. Do you have any idea about how kids end up in gangs?

Kids without functioning parents (dead, addicts, prison) are brought in very young. They are given small jobs and in exchange the gang will feed them, give them school clothes, money, sponsor their athletics, basically all of the things their functioning parents have failed to do. Once they are in, it's stay in or die. You can say they are shitting in their own beds, but it is way more complicated than that, and is a direct result of a society that has given up and shit all over them for decades. Yes, the only way out is for them to change themselves, but those are the best jobs available in the areas you are talking about.

What a sick and demented attitude you have. Just sit back and hope they kill each other like rabid dogs!

[proud2BlibKansan]

44. I am beyond appalled at your callous attitude

You honestly believe that poor people who actually have few choices choose to live in high crime areas and tolerate gang crime.

You would say anything to cling to your guns, wouldn't you?

You gun nuts are beyond repulsive and about as opposite of progressive as anyone can be.

Congratulations.

[slackmaster]

45. My guns have NOTHING to do with violent crime in places like the bad parts of Baltimore

No connection whatsoever.

[proud2BlibKansan]

48. Bullshit

You dug your own hole on this one sweetheart. Your determination to cling to those damn guns and make it easy for more people to own guns just puts more of them on the street and they end up in the hands of gang bangers. And you have already stated you don't care if people live in high crime areas because you believe they actually CHOOSE to live there.

I draw the line at kids being shot. It's unfortunate that you gun nuts refuse to advocate any legal measures that would reduce the chances of kids getting injured. Oh well, anything to preserve that damn second amendment. Who cares how many innocent people die?

Makes me ill. Seriously physically ill.

[Hugabear]

56. Kids getting shot is just a small price to pay

Collateral damage, gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet, guns don't kill people do, blah blah blah

:sarcasm:

If only the founders had known juts how twisted their second amendment would become...

[slackmaster]

63. For the record, I don't approve of kids getting shot

Nothing I have ever done has in any way caused a kid to get shot.

[slackmaster]

61. I haven't done one blessed thing to make guns easier for anyone to get in my entire life

I have taught more than 100 people gun safety, and I did it the right way.

People who do live in high-crime areas can do something about it if they decide to.

[Paladin]

52. Your Obsession With Guns Has EVERYTHING To Do......

...with the shitty, Law Of The Jungle outlook you're revealing on this thread, Slack. Quit digging that hole any deeper.....

[slackmaster]

62. Your amateur attempt at diagnosing me is devoid of authority

You have no idea what you are talking about, Paladin.

[rrneck]

57. I can't tell people they

shouldn't have a gun because I don't know their life circumstances.

I am no more willing to judge them because of the neighborhood they live in. They may or may not have any control over incursions by unsavory individuals of any stripe or the financial or civil means to help control them. I live in a very low crime area and I am also aware of the almost invisible financial and geographical barriers that help keep the riff raff out.

[derby378]

66. I agree - that was weak on a Dickensian scale

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[toadzilla]

20. thank you.

I agree 100%

[spiritual_gunfighter]

22. I agree as well

I live in the inner city of Chicago I see what abject poverty does to people every day. It is quite easy to sit back in a lily white suburb and say that "these people deserve what they get" but we both know it is much more complicated than that. I am really amazed at the short-sightedness of some people on DU. Take a look outside your own sheltered existance sometimes and see how other people live, then pass judgement I hope your post doesn't get deleted.

[polmaven]

25. I wish

we had a "recommend this individual post" feature. You, my friend, have said it all!

[slackmaster]

39. No, I have never said that anyone anywhere doesn't deserve an education

Learn how to read.

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. +1

Thank you. I too am repulsed by his attitude. Oh well, anything to justify clinging to those damn guns. Who cares if innocent kids are shot. Their parents chose to live in a high crime area and be persecuted by gang members. And the kids who are accidentally shot by guns handled carelessly are just the price we pay for preserving that precious second amendment.

[BlooInBloo]

59. All good. I'll repeat it if it does get deleted.

[proud2BlibKansan]

60. It's been deleted

[slackmaster]

69. Why can't you make your point without stooping to vile personal attacks?

Have you ever considered that there might be a problem with your own reasoning?

This thread is about a bunch of criminals getting shot by criminals while celebrating crimes they committed against other criminals. They're living a life that they created. They make choices every day to keep living that life, or to change themselves.

I only have sympathy for the innocent victims who got in the way. Being poor does not automatically make someone into a criminal. Being a criminal involves choices. Choices have consequences.

For all your talk about teaching peaceful conflict resolution and stopping bullying, you fail to practice what you preach, Kansan.

[proud2BlibKansan]

70. Oh good grief

Crawl back in your hole. You have no business lecturing ANYONE about being vile. Let's not forget the numerous posts of yours in this thread now thankfully deleted.

[slackmaster]

71. More personal attacks

I guess that's all you have.

You have no business teaching anything about conflict resolution to anyone. You just can't deal with a viewpoint that differs from your own. I can't imagine how you can survive teaching young people, with such weak interpersonal skills.

[Blue_Tires]

34. ironically the cookout was to commemorate the one-year anniversary

of a related double homicide...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bal-shooting0727,0,5516871.story

[slackmaster]

41. Not surprising, really.

It's appalling.

[Flaneur]

37. Oh, Jesus Christ! What an ass. Yeah, let's blame the poor people.

So, no one should live in a poor, crime-infested neighborhood? If they do, the crime problem is their fault? And equally, no one should take a job teaching in a poor, crime-infested neighborhood?

You're teetering perilously close to the edge of coming off as a racist, classist asshole.

You have a choice not to be one.

[proud2BlibKansan]

42. And I do choose to work there

Silly me, thinking I might have a valuable contribution to make.

[bullwinkle428]

47. Shame on you, Proud, for making the effort to help

educate kids in parts of the city that many people wouldn't venture into if you paid them!!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[proud2BlibKansan]

49. And double shame on me for not going into this neighborhood packing heat!

[Hugabear]

27. Do you realize how much that sounds like RW bullshit?

"Gang members shooting other gang members are performing a valuable public service."

Honestly, that statement couldn't be much more RW if you tried.

[proud2BlibKansan]

50. But it's their constitutional right!

:sarcasm:

[KamaAina]

54. Got eugenics?

:puke:

[rrneck]

9. They don't fall.

They are picked up.

[proud2BlibKansan]

55. And stolen

[rrneck]

58. And that is where we find the center

of this circuitous issue. Yes, firearms are stolen. Theft is a willful violation of the law. It is illegal for a thief to possess a firearm. If s/he has committed one crime, especially the crime of acquiring a tool to commit another crime, the creation of more regulations seem futile since they are already demonstrably ineffective.

And it all starts with a willful act by someone who made a bad choice, not the tool used as a result of that choice. I'm sure you know what bromide is coming next...

[Tim01]

8. Attack the guns instead of trying to help the victims, no surprise.

If the guns were gone, the criminals would still be terrorizing that neighborhood.

I guess the next thing is banning clothes in gang colors.

[Flaneur]

40. Some of us get tired of hearing everyday about new gun killings.

And your right to pack heat.

[slackmaster]

43. While you have been busy whining about in on the Web, I've actually done something about it

I've personally taught firearms safety to more than 100 people, a lot of them teenagers.

[proud2BlibKansan]

53. And I have taught 10 times that many kids how to solve problems without violence

[slackmaster]

64. That's good - Please keep doing that

It will help a lot more than all the bleating and braying about taking guns away from people who are not causing problems with them.

[proud2BlibKansan]

68. Of course I will and I don't need your approval to do so

[Tim01]

65. Serious question

How do you teach that?

I am a big fan of non violent solutions. I don't agree with you about much of anything, but I am not leading into a fight here.

[proud2BlibKansan]

67. There are several different programs

I have had a lot of training in conflict resolution and think it is very effective.

We are also doing more training on bullying. It's a pretty hot topic lately.

I am also a fan of DARE. There is a component that teaches kids to avoid gangs and violence. I realize DARE is controversial but it varies and the program my school district uses is very good. We also have a great DARE officer in our school.

This is a program sponsored by a church but I like it a lot and they do keep religion out of it when they work with our kids. http://www.kidpeace.org/

[Missy Vixen]

12. We'd better not talk about this

After all, the gun nuts will accuse us of "exploiting the victims" if there is any discussion at all!

I guess we're all just supposed to hope we never find ourselves in a situation like this, huh?

:eyes: :sarcasm:

[michreject]

15. This from the 1st sentence

A feud between rival drug gangs

You don't somehow think that they brought it upon them self?

[redqueen]

28. Changing our drug laws would help immensely. (nt)

[michreject]

30. Gangs would still kill

over prostitution, gambling and turf.

[redqueen]

31. Less $$$ in the hands of the gangs means an improvement. (nt)

[Xicano]

26. Six minute 911 call: Bet she's glad she owned a gun

911 call from woman while an intruder busted into her house and police were racing to protect her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTAADW9wNvk

[proteus_lives]

32. Of course, you can't bear to blame the person using the weapon.

You blame the inanimate tool. Because obviously it decided to shoot those people and the poor, little gang member was pulling the trigger against his will.

[cwydro]

33. They need to get that "no snitching" ethic out of play

altogether.

[Flaneur]

38. That would probably require ending drug prohibition.

The primary motor for snitching.

[cwydro]

51. well, I'm all for that.

But there are plenty of unsolved murders and assaults that no one wants to "snitch" on.

Tupac anybody?

[masuki bance]

35. I sure hope they aren't asking what the race is of the suspect. nt

[Hutzpa]

36. .

:eyes: